Eavestrough guards

ABSTRACT

A corner piece for a gutter having a gutter guard, the corner piece comprising first and second members each having first and second longitudinally extending sides and first and second ends with a central apertured portion between respective ones of said first and second sides. The attachment means secure the first and second members together adjacent a corner such that they can pivot with respect to each other from a first position wherein the sides of each of the first and second members are substantially longitudinally aligned and a second position wherein the longitudinally extending sides are substantially perpendicular with respect to each other. The corner piece can be preformed and installed on site.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to improvements in eavestroughs or guttersand more particularly, relates to a corner piece for use witheavestrough guards.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Eavestroughs are commonly used with practically all residences as wellas with many other buildings; they serve to collect rainwater runofffrom the roof and forward the water to be discharged at a desiredlocation. Normally, the rainwater is passed to a down spout where it isdirected away from the building foundation to thereby minimize thepossibility of the rainwater seeping back into the building.

One problem with conventional eavestroughs is the accumulation ofundesired material therein. Thus, many residences and other buildingshave trees thereabout and leaves can accumulate in the eavestroughs.Other materials such as pine needles, twigs, roofing shingle particles,etc can also collect in the gutter which in time can lead to blockagesthereof. These blockages will cause the rainwater to flow over the edgeof the gutters and thus cause damage to the lawn or foundation. It hasalso been known it the art for the gutter or down spout to becomeclogged with leaves and then freeze causing damage to the gutter system.In order to overcome this problem, eavestroughs must be routinelycleaned to remove the debris. In many residences, the roof is at such aheight that it would be dangerous for the home owner to attempt to do soand therefore the job must be contracted out at a substantial expense tothe home owner.

In order to prevent this problem, it has been proposed in the art to usevarious types of guards or other means to overcome the need forcleaning. Thus, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,121,684 discloses a cagetype spout strainer device which is placed into the upper end of a downspout and which is meant to prevent leaves and other larger foreignmaterial from entering the down spout. However, this does not preventforeign matter from entering the eavestroughs and thus, regularmaintenance must be performed to remove leaves or other extraneousforeign material therein.

It has also been proposed in the art to utilize a shield or a guardwhich consists of an apertured material and which fits over the top ofthe eavestroughs to permit the passage of rainwater while barring thepassage of extraneous material into the eavestroughs. However, many ofthese guards do not function as desired and thus access must still behad to the eavestroughs for cleaning purposes.

Other proposals have included relatively complex structures which aremounted for movement such that they may be emptied when desired. Alsoproposed in the prior art are arrangements wherein a cover has an outeredge which curls downwardly and the water flow follows the curvedportion due to the surface tension of the water and thereafter cascadesinto the eavestroughs. The eavestrough is thus protected from leaves andthe like entering therein. However, this concept suffers from the factthat when the volume of the water becomes sufficiently large, thesurface tension is insufficient to cause all the water to flow into thegutter. The rainwater will then overflow and cause the damages set forthabove.

It is also known in the art to provide a gutter guard such as shown inU.S. Pat. No. 6,427,388, the gutter guards having a common inventorshipwith the present invention.

When installing gutter guards such as shown in the above identified USPatent, the corners must be manually cut prior to installation. Thisnaturally is somewhat time consuming.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a corner piecesuitable for use with apertured guards for eavestroughs and which cornerpiece occupies a minimum of shipping space while at the same time beingable to be formed into a corner on site.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided acorner piece for a gutter having an inner wall adjacent a buildingstructure and an outer wall with a bottom wall extending between theinner wall and the outer wall, the corner piece comprising first andsecond members each of the first and second members having first andsecond longitudinally extending sides, each of the first and secondmembers having first and second ends, each of the first and secondmembers having respective central apertured portions extending betweenrespective ones of the first and second sides, and attachment meanssecuring the first and second members together adjacent a corner formedproximate one of the sides and one of the end walls, the arrangementbeing such that the first and second members can pivot with respect toeach other from a first position wherein the longitudinally extendingsides of first and second members are substantially longitudinallyaligned and a second position wherein the longitudinally extending sidesof the first and second members are substantially perpendicular to eachother.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there isprovided, in combination, a gutter having a gutter inner wall adjacent abuilding structure, a gutter outer wall, and a gutter bottom wallextending between the inner wall and the outer wall, the inner wall, theouter wall, and the bottom wall defining an open top gutter, and acorner piece for covering the open top gutter, the corner piececomprising first and second members, each of the first and secondmembers having first and second longitudinally extending sides extendingalong the gutter inner wall and the gutter outer wall respectively, eachof the first and second members having first and second ends, each ofthe first and second members having respective central aperturedportions extending between respective ones of the first and secondsides, and attachment means securing the first and second memberstogether adjacent a corner formed proximate the first longitudinallyextending sides.

According to the present invention, the preformed corner will, as abovestated, comprise first and second members which are pivotably connectedtogether. This arrangement permits the corner to be shipped in a morecompact form and then easily installed on the gutter.

The corner piece is preferably formed of a sheet like material and maybe formed either of a plastic or metallic material. It suffices to saythat the use of such materials is well known in the art.

The corner piece of the present invention may be used in conjunctionwith the type of gutter guards shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,388, theteachings of which are hereby incorporated by reference. However, theymay also be used with many other types of gutter guards, or alone, asdesired.

The pattern of apertures within gutter guards may be of any desiredsufficient to permit drainage. The pieces may be secured together by anysuitable means including embossing, mechanical fasteners, etc.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Having thus generally described the invention, reference will be made tothe accompanying drawings illustrating an embodiment thereof, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an eavestrough mounted on a buildingstructure and utilizing the corner piece of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an end elevational view thereof;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of a corner piece used in an inner cornerconfiguration;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of a corner piece used in an outer cornerconfiguration;

FIG. 5 is a top plan view illustrating movement of the corner piece froma normally straight position used for shipping to an angled positionsuitable for installation; and

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view taken along the lines 6-6 of FIG. 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to the drawings in greater detail and by reference charactersthereto, a corner piece suitable for use on an inner corner is generallydesignated by reference numeral 10.

Corner piece 10 is designed to be used at a corner formed in a gutter oreavestrough and a typical arrangement is shown in FIG. 1. Thus, there isprovided a roof R having shingles 64 thereon while there is alsoprovided a facia 66 below shingles 64. A gutter generally designated byreference numeral 54 is mounted on facia 66. Gutter 54, as shown,comprises an inner wall 56, an outer wall 58, and a bottom wall 60 tothereby define an open top trough. An inwardly extending top wall orflange 62 is formed at the top of outer wall 58.

Corner piece 10 includes a first member generally designated byreference numeral 12 and a second member generally designated byreference numeral 14.

First member 12 has a central aperture portion 16 which has a pluralityof apertures 17 extending therethrough. Preferably these apertures arearranged as shown and discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,388.

First member 12 includes an inner side generally designated by referencenumeral 18 and which has a vertical sidewall 20 as may be seen in FIG.2. There is also an outer side 22 which likewise has a vertical sidewall24. Formed integrally with vertical sidewall 24 is an outwardlyextending flange 26.

Second member 14 likewise includes a central aperture portion 28 havinga plurality of apertures 30 therein. At inner side 32, there is provideda vertical sidewall 34 while along outer side 36, there is provided avertical sidewall 38 terminating in an outwardly extending flange 40.First member 12 terminates in a first member inner end edge 42 and afirst member outer end edge 46. Similarly, second member 14 terminatesin a second member inner end edge 44 and a second member outer end edge48. The arrangement is such that inner end edges 42, 44 are locatedproximate each other while the outer end edges 46, 48 are at the distalends of their perspective members. As it will be noted, inner end edges42 and 44 extend at an angle of 45° with respect to their respectiveside edges. First member 12 and second member 14 are secured together bymeans of embossing 50.

As shown in FIG. 6, the end piece is normally shipped in a form whereinone member lies partially on top of each other and vertical walls 20, 34lie adjacent to each other. Prior to installation, first member 12 andsecond member 14 are pivoted with respect to each other to be at 90° asshown in dotted lines in FIG. 5. The corner piece may then be installedby means of fastening members 52 as shown in FIG. 1. If it is desired,additional fastening members 51 may also be provided to secure outwardlyextending flanges 26 and 40 to top sidewalls 62 of gutter 54.

As described above, corner piece 10 is used in conjunction with an innercorner of a gutter or an eavestrough. The corner piece, may equally wellbe used with an outer corner and such a corner piece is shown in FIG. 4and is designated by reference numeral 110. In this respect, referencenumerals in the one hundreds are used for similar components. Asillustrated, there are provided first and second members 112 and 114respectively. The difference in the arrangement is that the sides arereversed in order that the longitudinally extending vertical sidewalls120, 134 are again formed so as to lie adjacent to the buildingstructure.

It will be understood that the above described embodiments are forpurposes of illustration only and that changes or modifications may bemade thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention.

1. A corner piece for a gutter having an inner wall adjacent a buildingstructure and an outer wall with a bottom wall extending between saidinner wall and said outer wall, said corner piece comprising: first andsecond members each of said first and second members having first andsecond longitudinally extending sides; each of said first and secondmembers having first and second ends; each of said first and secondmembers having respective central apertured portions extending betweenrespective ones of said first and second sides; and attachment meanssecuring said first and second members together adjacent a corner formedproximate one of said sides and one of said end walls, the arrangementbeing such that said first and second members can pivot with respect toeach other from a first position wherein said longitudinally extendingsides of first and second members are substantially longitudinallyaligned and a second position wherein said longitudinally extendingsides of said first and second members are substantially perpendicularto each other.
 2. The corner piece of claim 1 wherein said first side ofeach of said first and second members comprises a first side verticalwall extending substantially perpendicular to a respective one of saidcentral apertured portions.
 3. The corner piece of claim 2 wherein saidsecond side of each of said first and second members comprises a secondside vertical wall extending substantially perpendicularly to arespective one of said central apertured portions and a flange extendingoutwardly from a distal end of each of said second side vertical walls.4. The corner piece of claim 1 wherein said inner end walls extend at anangle of approximately 45° between their respective first and secondlongitudinally extending sides.
 5. The corner piece of claim 1 whereinsaid corner piece is of a formed sheet aluminum material.
 6. The cornerpiece of claim 1 wherein said first and second members are securedtogether by means of an embossing.
 7. The corner piece of claim 1wherein said first and second members are secured together by means of amechanical fastener.
 8. In combination, a gutter having a gutter innerwall adjacent a building structure, a gutter outer wall, and a gutterbottom wall extending between said inner wall and said outer wall, saidinner wall, said outer wall, and said bottom wall defining an open topgutter, and a corner piece for covering said open top gutter, saidcorner piece comprising: first and second members, each of said firstand second members having first and second longitudinally extendingsides extending along said gutter inner wall and said gutter outer wallrespectively; each of said first and second members having first andsecond ends; each of said first and second members having respectivecentral apertured portions extending between respective ones of saidfirst and second sides; and attachment means securing said first andsecond members together adjacent a corner formed proximate said firstlongitudinally extending sides.
 9. The combination of claim 8 whereineach of said first and second members has a vertically extendingsidewall extending along a respective one of said first longitudinallyextending sides.
 10. The combination of claim 9 wherein said second sideof each of said first and second members comprises a second sidevertical wall extending substantially perpendicular to a respective oneof said central apertured portions and a flange extending outwardly froma distal end of each of said second side vertical walls.
 11. Thecombination of claim 10 wherein said first and second members aresecured together by means of an embossing.